DA 00-627


Scott R. Flick, Esq.
Fisher, Wayland, Cooper, Leader
& Zaragoza, LLP
2001 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20006-1851

					Re:	KDTV License Partnership, G.P. (KDTV)
Request for Refund of Auction Payments
						For MX Group SST15 in Closed Broadcast
						Auction No. 25

Dear Mr. Flick:

This letter is in response to your Petition for Refund of Auction Payment (Petition) filed 
November 10, 1999, on behalf of KDTV License Partnership, G.P. (KDTV), a subsidiary of 
Univision Television Group, Inc. (Univision), the winning bidder in MX Group SST15 in the 
Closed Broadcast Auction No. 25.  For the reasons set forth below, we grant the Petition.

Three mutually exclusive long-form applications were filed for secondary television facilities in 
MX Group SST 15 - KDTV's application for Channel 28 at Santa Rosa, California, the application 
of The Chronicle Publishing Company (Chronicle) for Channel 28 at Santa Rosa, and the 
application of the Lake City TV Club for Channel 28 at Lakeport, California.  On July 9, 1999, 
the Mass Media Bureau and Wireless Telecommunications Bureau issued a Public Notice, DA 
99-1346 (July 9th Public Notice), announcing that these applicants would be eligible to 
participate in an auction to begin on September 28, 1999.

The July 9th Public Notice also stated that, in order to participate in the auction, all applicants 
would have to submit a FCC Form 175 (short-form application) by the deadline of August 20, 
1999.  See July 9th Public Notice at 2.  If only one acceptable FCC Form 175 was received for a 
particular construction permit, the Broadcast First Report and Order stated that the auction 
would be cancelled for that construction permit.     In this case, short-form applications were 
submitted by Univision and Chronicle.  Subsequently, the auction staff issued a Public Notice, 
Report No. AUC-99-25-F (Auction No. 25), DA 99-1800, on September 3, 1999 (September 3rd 
Public Notice), listing as incomplete Chronicle's short-form application.  The September 3rd 
Public Notice stated that applicants with incomplete short-form applications could become 
qualified to bid in the auction only if they resubmitted complete applications by 5:30 pm on 
September 14, 1999.  Chronicle failed to correct the deficiency in its short-form application, its 
application was therefore rejected, and Chronicle was not qualified to participate in the auction.  
 See Public Notice, Report No. AUC-99-25-G (Auction No. 25), DA 99-1912, released 
September 17, 1999 (September 17th Public Notice). 

KDTV maintains that Chronicle's short-form application was "defective" and, therefore, MX Group 
SST15 should not have been treated as a mutually exclusive group.  KDTV also maintains that 
Univision's application should have been treated as a "singleton" and should not have been sent to 
auction.  Instead, the application was included in the auction, it was forced to pay an upfront 
payment and to submit a minimum opening bid in the same amount.  KDTV requests a refund of 
$28,000.

Because Chronicle failed to cure the deficiency in its short-form application during the 
designated resubmission period, its application was never accepted for filing and was listed as 
rejected in the September 17th Public Notice. Therefore, Univision's application was the only 
acceptable short-form application on file.  As indicated in the Broadcast First Report and Order, 
the application should have been treated as a "singleton" and not sent to auction.  We therefore 
grant KDTV's request for refund of $28,000. 

Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED, That the Petition for Refund of Auction Payment filed by KDTV 
License Partnership, GP, IS GRANTED. 

				 	Sincerely,


					Mark R. Bollinger
					Acting Chief, Auctions and Operations Division
					Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
					
  Implementation of Section 309(j) of the Communications Act - Competitive Bidding for Commercial Broadcast 
and Instructional Television Fixed Service Licenses, First Report and Order, MM Docket No. 97-234, GC Docket 
No. 92-52 and GEN Docket No. 90-264, 13 FCC Rcd 15920, at 15980,  154 (1998) ("Broadcast First Report and 
Order").
   The refund payment will be made payable to Univision (KDTV's controlling general partner and the payor of the 
upfront payment) via check or in the form of an account credit.  Please submit written instructions as to the preferred 
method of payment to Ms. Gail Glasser, Office of the Managing Director, Financial Operations Center, Auctions 
Accounting Group, 445 Twelfth Street, SW, Room 1-A843, Washington, DC 20554  
    Univision's application (File No. BPTTL-JG0601NT) for Santa Rosa, California, was inadvertently listed on the 
Auction No. 25 Public Notice, DA 00-548, released March 10, 2000.  Pursuant to that Public Notice, Univision was 
instructed to submit a final payment for the Santa Rosa construction permit by March 24, 2000.  This letter 
supercedes that Public Notice and no payment for the Santa Rosa construction permit is necessary.  A separate 
Public Notice will grant KDTV's Santa Rosa application. 
 

 
 







Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554

Adopted March 23, 2000		   Released March 24, 2000